Unconventional Solutions

A few unconventional solutions that I have been pondering.

Helmet-less Motorcycle Riders
Don't want to wear your helmet while riding your Hog?  Then here is my unconventional solution to the problem of paying the medical bills when you turn your head into road paste (after it inevitably hits the asphalt):  you pay for it all.  No insurance coverage, no hospitalization, no medical coverage of any kind.  You are in debt for the rest of your natural life to the hospitals, doctors, etc. that provided you with treatment for your self-inflicted wounds.

Social Security Disability
While most people know that the Social Security system will eventually run out of money (on or about 2030-ish), they don't realize that the disability portion of the system is in even worse shape.  This is in part due to the fact that the term "disability" can mean everything from a real injury to the inability to read.  Here's my unconventional solution to this problem: everybody works.  If you don't have functioning legs, then maybe you work at recording audio books for the blind.  No arms?  Fine...then tutor children after school. Disability means that you can't do some things...it doesn't mean that you are incapable of doing  anything.

Juvenile Detention
For those hardened juvenile offenders who repeatedly screw up every opportunity to straighten their lives out, I have an unconventional solution:  work farm, preferably in the middle of no-where.  The rules would be simple:  you want to eat?  You work to grow/raise your own food.  Don't want to work?  You don't eat.  While on the farm the offenders may in fact learn a skill or two.

Smoking Contract
I get that smoking tobacco can be as addictive as shooting up smack, and I actually do have a tremendous amount of sympathy for those who picked up the habit when they were young and stupid but now can't seem to quit.  In fact I think smoking cessation should be fully covered by insurance.  However, for those insist that they "have a right" to smoke and are uninterested in quitting, I have an unconventional solution to the problem of countless health care dollars being sucked up into maintaining their existence:  no medical treatment for smoking-related illnesses...as long as the person continues to smoke.  Want medical treatment for that lung cancer?  Then sign a contract that obligates you to quit smoking immediately; fall back into the habit and the treatment stops.  Period.


Yeah I know, I sound like a heartless bastard, but so be it.  The common theme throughout these unconventional solutions is the notion that we have somehow as a society disconnected actions from consequences.  We have created a state where there is an entitlement for everything.  We have diminished the value of work. These things are, however, like gravity:  you can act as if it doesn't exist, but just don't try and jump off a building and expect to float.  There is no truly free-ride in life, as someone always ends up paying for your mistakes.  My point is that maybe it should be me that pays for my own, not society at large.